Banking on inputs from our IPL stars: WI coach

West Indies team management is banking on quality feedback from its Indian Premier League stars ahead of their Group B clash against India in the ICC Champions Trophy.

West Indies coach Ottis Gibson said the IPL stars are expected to provide "intelligence" on the Indian players in their team meeting as he admitted that the Twenty20 league inputs will play a crucial factor for the Calypso Charmers.

"Well, that's one of the key things, I think. Everybody has got video of each other now. We watch so much footage of each other, but we also have a lot of our players mixing with the Indian players in the IPL," Gibson told reporters at the pre-match press conference.

"Our players, Dwayne (Bravo), Chris (Gayle), (Kieron) Pollard especially and Sunil Narine have been starring in the IPL, so hopefully they've got a lot of information to share when we get back this evening. We'll have a really good discussion about the Indian players and stuff like that, and those guys will form the main part of that meeting," added Gibson.

The winner of this game is almost guaranteed berth in the Champions Trophy semifinals with both India and West Indies having won a game each.

Gibson ruled out chin music against the Indians. The former pacer from Barbados, who has been England's bowling coach, admitted the current squad did not have the class and calibre of the pacemen of the Eighties.

"The last time we used short pitch bowling it was Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Michael Holding and people like that. We don't have those guys, those tall guys any more. So as we saw against Pakistan, we pitched it up, we swung it a little bit and we put it in the right areas, and I suppose that will be the strategy going forward," Gibson said.

The 44-year-old West Indian, who is well versed with English conditions, said London's cold weather conditions can be a deterrent.

"I'd prefer it to be 10 degrees warmer, that's for sure. I think both teams would. We are warm-blooded type creatures coming from the Caribbean and India, so we would prefer it to be a few degrees warmer for sure," he said.

Gibson said the West Indian pace attack depends heavily on Kemar Roach, who took three for 28 against Pakistan.

"I think, over the last two years of his career, he's had a really good time. He's done very well for us. Coming into this tournament he hadn't been at his best, and he's put a lot of work in and I'm really pleased that the work that he put in has paid off.

"The first two warm-up games didn't go particularly well for him, but you could see that the work that he was putting in meant that at some point in time he was going to have a day like he did on Tuesday, and we hope that he can probably fight it. Kemar is a big player for us, and we needed a performance like that from him, and we're very pleased for him, and we hope that he can do the same again tomorrow," Gibson signed off.

The International Cricket Council made it clear that it had nothing to do with the absence of former Indian captain Ravi Shastri from the panel of commentators for last month's ICC Champions Trophy in England.

Former skipper, Sunil Gavaskar and other ex-cricketers on Tuesday said in unison that one should refrain from drawing comparisons between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his predecessors, insisting instead to rejoice India's success in the ICC Champions Trophy.